Year 8, Day 273: Psalms 129-130

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This pair of psalms for today give us insight into the relationship between God and His followers.  In each psalmist we hear about their position and the current position of God.  In each case, there is a plea for response.

In the first case, we have a victim.  The psalmist feels persecuted and asks God to intervene.  The psalmist longs for when it will be said that the Lord has cut the strings of the oppressors.  The psalmist knows that his salvation resides in the Lord.

The psalmist goes further, though.  He asks that the wicked be put to shame.  He longs for the time when they will wither up and die.  I can really understand the psalmist here and know what it is like to long for the destruction of those who persecute me.  I give the psalmist credit, too.  The psalmist knows that such a judgment is best handed out by a righteous God and not an emotional human being.  That’s an important lesson to learn.

In the second psalm, we have a psalmist who gives us the feeling of knowing some guilt.  I love the phrase in Psalm 130:3.  If the Lord should mark our iniquities, who could stand?  If the Lord only cared for punishing our guilt, we would all feel the weight of such judgment.  Who among us is not guilty?

Our hope is in the fact that God cares about forgiveness more than He cares about judgment.  He knows that we must be held responsible, but He also realizes that we should be given the option of not being crushed under the weight of such judgment.  Our hope, as the psalmist says, in in the forgiveness of the Lord.

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Year 8, Day 272: Psalms 126-128

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These three psalms form an interesting trio.  The first psalm speaks about when the Lord restored the fortunes of the nation.  The people were happy for obvious reasons.  They went from a life of misery and anxiousness to a life of certainly and stability.  It is good to live in the provision of the Lord.

What’s important to note about this psalm is that it truly is about the greatness of God.  When people se the fortunes of Zion restored, they know that the credit goes to the Lord.  This is significant.  While it is certainly good to go from misfortune to good fortune, it is more significant that such a change comes from the Lord.  When the circumstances of our life are good, the Lord deserves the praise.

Psalm 127 gives us the reason for this.  Unless the Lord builds the house and watches over the city, the building and watching is done in vain.  We can build our own thing.  Usually, however, such building is either done for the wrong reasons or the happiness that comes from it is fleeting.  The best way to live is when the Lord is the source of the life.  Then the life is fulfilling.  This is why the Lord deserves the credit.  The best life comes from Him anyways.

Psalm 128 comes in with a great conclusion to the thought of the earlier two psalms.  This psalm gives us the result of such life.  When the Lord is the source of life, we are blessed.  Our families are focused and able to support one another.  Our children learn to live life with a good ethic and morality.  Our communities are stronger and more united. 

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Year 8, Day 271: Psalms 124-125

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The Lord is good.  That clearly is the theme of these two chapters for this day.  In fact, that likely understates the theme of the chapters.  The Lord is more than Good.  He is our salvation, in more ways than one.

After all, if the Lord is not on our side, would not the world devour us?  How many of us in the world are capable of keeping ourselves from being devoured?  Could not the powerful and influential destroy any of us on a whim if they so desired?  The truth of life is that most of us could be undone and the majority of the world would not bat an eye.

There is someone who would care, though.  The Lord would care.  The Lord does care.  He watches over us.  He puts us in the vicinity of those who would protect us.  He leads us to those who can mentor us and guide us.  He leads us in His ways and teaches us to abide in His protection.  Our help is in the Lord, because He has made the earth and understands His creation perfectly.

I love the image offered up to us in Psalm 125.  As mountains surround Jerusalem, so does God’s protection surround us.  It’s well known that Jerusalem’s greatest defense was its geography.  It is nigh impossible to assault without building massive ramps to alleviate the geography.  This is a tremendous image to consider when thinking about God’s protection over us.  God’s protection is insurmountable.  God’s protection is through.  God’s protection is profound.

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Year 8, Day 270: Psalms 122-123

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At first these psalms seem to be at odds with one another.  Psalm 122 seems to be a psalm of joy and excitement about coming to God.  Psalm 123 seems to be a psalm of desperation as the psalmist pleads with God to do something about their circumstance.  On the surface, these psalms are opposite in tone.

However, look more closely at the point of these psalms.  Psalm 122 ends with a plea to pray.  We are to pray for peace.  We are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  We are to pray for peace among our spiritual brothers and sisters.  We are to pray for peace within God’s Holy city.  We are to pray for the house of the Lord and its peace.

An interesting question is raised when we look at these words.  Why would psalmist encourage us to pray for peace?  The psalmist encourages us to pray for peace because he knows what the alternative is.  If we don’t have peace, we have strife.  If we don’t have peace, we are in turmoil.  If we don’t have peace we have neighbors fighting with neighbors, brothers fighting with sisters, and nations fighting within themselves.  We pray for peace, because the alternative is not a place in which we want to dwell.

That brings us to Psalm 123.  There is a line in psalm 123 that haunts me every time I read it.  “Have mercy upon us, Lord, because we have had more than enough of contempt.”  Psalm 123 is the embodiment of that which Psalm 122 is asking us to pray against!  Psalm 122 asks us to pray for peace because the psalmist knows that the people who wrote psalm 123 are not enjoying life at all!

It is difficult to live in a life of contempt.  It is difficult to always feel like you need to be looking over your shoulder.  It is difficult to live feeling like you are under scrutiny or attack.  It is difficult to not know peace.

We should take the advice of Psalm 122 serious.  Pray for peace.  Pray for people to get along.  Pray for people to not want to harm one another.  Pray hard, people of God, because it is far to easy to get more than our fair share of contempt.

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Year 8, Day 269: John 21

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Today we have another reaction to the resurrection.  The disciples go to fish.  Here is another completely normal reaction.  They don’t know what else to do, so they go fishing.  It’s possible to be critical of them.  I’ve even been critical of them in the past!  But in truth, they still didn’t understand.  Not knowing what to do, they go fishing.

Regardless of the opinion of the disciple’s choice to go fishing, there is something that is for sure.  When they recognize Jesus at work, they react.  Peter throws himself into the lake, attempting to get to Jesus.  He leaves the rest of the disciples to deal with the fish, but they manage.  Soon they are having a breakfast of fish with the Lord.

There’s an interesting point here.  The disciples go about life, waiting to see the Lord at work.  When they see it, they leap at the chance to be with Jesus.  The disciples don’t force God’s hand, the wait about patiently for the door to open.  They have the patience to wait for the Lord to lead.  They are content to go fishing while they figure it out.

This is a neat point to ponder.  How often do we force the Lord’s hand?  How often are we afraid to spend a season – or even a day – just fishing while we wait upon the Lord?  How many times do we go out and do our own will and call it the Lord’s will because we feel that we should be doing something?  Perhaps the Lord wants us simply to go fishing until He calls us to work in His wisdom.

This is how the Gospel of John ends.  Jesus tells Peter to feed His sheep.  He also tells Peter to not worry about the plans He has for the other disciple.  In other words, Jesus is telling Peter to just tend to His life and wait for the Lord to invite him into ministry.  Invite He will, too.  In the book of Acts we hear just what God will ask of Peter.  But for the time being, it’s a simple life of fishing and tending the flock for Peter.

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Year 8, Day 268: John 20

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I find people’s reactions to the resurrection very interesting.  Some are predictable. Others are emotionally driven.  Some are rather ordinary.  What’s neat is that nobody is the same.

Mary comes to the tomb first.  Look at her reaction.  She runs away and goes and gets help.  Specifically, she turns to Peter.  She doesn’t understand, so she turns to someone else to help try and make sense of the situation.

Peter, and the disciple that Jesus loved – who I think is Lazarus, runs to the tomb.  Peter arrives second, but he goes into the tomb first.  The two disciples see the linen clothes and assess the situation.  They don’t understand.  At the same time, everything seems to be in order.  They head off to their homes, content in their seeing but not perceiving.

Mary now turns to the garden and starts to cry.  She ran for help, but the help she got wasn’t much help at all.  She stands, weeping.  She spots more people near where she is crying and begins to ask.  In all of her emotion, Mary is at least still trying to seek the truth.  Jesus meets her and tells her to go back to the disciples – who, mind you, are still headed back home – and give them further instruction.

Jesus then appears to a gathering of His disciples.  We are told in other gospels that they were afraid, fearing that they were seeing a ghost.  In John’s gospel, we are simply told that Jesus shows them the wounds of the crucifixion.  They are pacified and accept the reality of the resurrection.  It all seems so humdrum and normal with the disciples.  Of course, they probably have already heard from Mary that she saw Jesus.

Unfortunately, Thomas is not with them.  Thomas’ reaction is interesting.  He stubbornly declares that unless he gets the same experience he will not believe.  I personally think that this has more to do with his stubbornness – or perhaps jealousy – than his actual faith.  After all, if the people you are closest to tell about a common experience, you tend to believe them.  But Thomas wants the experience for himself.  Rather than celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, he digs in his heels and puts on a great pout.  Naturally, though, Jesus meets him where he is and gives him the experience that he wants.

Look at these reactions.  We have people who take the events in stride.  We have emotional people.  We have pouters and disbelievers.  Humanity’s reaction to the resurrection is as varied as there are people to hear about it.  What I love, though, is that Jesus meets people where they are.

To Mary, He meets her amidst her tears.  To Peter and the other disciple, He sends Mary into their normalcy.  To Thomas, He gives him what he wants.  The death and resurrection changes our relationship with God.  While it also changes us, it does it far more incrementally and gradually.  Jesus meets us where we are before beginning the process of effecting change within.

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Year 8, Day 267: John 19

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This chapter is the crux of the story.  It is here that we find the moment for which Jesus came.  He was arrested in the last chapter.  He is tried and crucified in this chapter.  The death of God is the sacrifice that can redeem all of humanity.  I still find it odd that instead of God condemning humanity for killing His own Son that He would instead see it as forgiveness.  As odd as that sounds, I am immensely grateful.

There are more oddities in this story.  First, look at Pilate.  He has Jesus flogged, beaten, and dressed in purple.  The rest of the story he seeks to release Him because Pilate can find no fault in Jesus.  Why does Pilate behave this way?  There are a couple of reasons, and I don’t believe we can be certain which is the truest of them all.  First, power does corrupt.  Pilate might simply be making a statement about his power.  However, we know that the relationship between the Jews and the Romans was not good.  Pilate might see this as an opportunity to irritate the Jewish leaders.  Either way, Pilate acts oddly considering that he finds Jesus innocent of the charges.

Furthermore, look at the level to which the religious leaders must go in order to get Jesus crucified.  They yell that they have no king but Caesar.  The very irritant that they were looking for the Messiah to abolish is that which they must shout in order to kill the Son of God.  How odd it is that human beings will say anything to get what they  want.

Then we have the behavior of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.  Here are two extraordinarily upstanding Jews.  At the moment of Passover – the holiest of days in the Jewish calendar – they voluntarily go out and touch a dead body and in doing so make themselves unable to partake in Passover.  These two Jewish leaders would rather honor Jesus than partake in the Passover.  That’s an odd act that makes quite the clear point as to their true allegiances.

In the end, I think it is a fitting set of stories.  An encounter with Jesus brings about odd behavior.  Sensible people often act insensibly when they come in contact with God.  Some people lash out angrily.  Other people are overcome with thanksgiving and generosity.  Some turn in hatred.  Others reach out in inexplicable love.  When we meet God, our true self comes out.  Which will be my response?

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Year 8, Day 266: John 18

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Thematically speaking, this is an awesome chapter of the Bible.  We see example, counterexample, and even end with an enticing question to draw out an incredible theme.  What is the theme?  The will of the Father.

Look at Jesus.  He knew what Judas was doing.  To make the task easier, Jesus went to where He always goes.  Jesus makes Judas job as easy as possible, because He is focused on accomplishing the will of the Father.

Furthermore, we hear Jesus before the rulers.  He does not deny being Jesus.  He does not deny what He taught.  He concedes all of these points because He knows what truth is and that the Father is on the side of truth.  His eyes are on the will of the Father.  His strength comes through doing the work of the Lord.

As a counterexample, look at Peter.  In the middle of the arrest of Jesus, Peter incites violence by cutting off the ear of someone opposing Jesus.  When asked about His relationship with Jesus, he denies the truth.  Peter isn’t focused on the will of the Father, he’s focused on his own survival.  To be fair, I don’t truly believe that Peter even understands what God is up to, so I can’t really blame Peter for His actions.  For all I know, I would do the same thing in Peter’s shoes.  However, while I cannot blame Peter, I can illustrate that while the Son of God is focused on the will of the Father, the iconic representative of humanity is thinking about saving his own skin.

What is really neat about this chapter is how it ends.  Jesus goes before Pilate.  They have a discussion, largely beating around the bush.  Eventually we come to the great question.  There is no greater question to ask than what Pilate says.  “What is truth?”

Truth is that the Son of Man came to die so that the relationship between humanity and the Father can be restored.  Truth is that human beings talk a big talk, but often when pushed into a corner think only about themselves and saving their own skin.  Truth is that the beginning of the greatest journey we can ever have begins by turning to God and searching for truth by genuinely accepting the fact that we don’t have all the answers.

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Year 8, Day 265: John 17

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After the teachings of Jesus, He prays over His disciples.  Naturally, we would expect Jesus to pray for their protection.  We expect Jesus to ask the Father that none of His disciples would be lost to the world.  These are things that make sense in the prayer.

I am always caught by hearing Jesus make a point to state that He is not asking them to be taken out of the world.  Jesus knows that the world isn’t going to accept His disciples.  He knows that there will be persecution.  He knows that the disciples will feel rejection.  Knowing all of this, Jesus still asks that His disciples not be taken out of the world.

This is because Jesus has His priorities right.  He came to Earth focused on the Lord’s will.  He came to restore the relationship that humanity has with God.  He came to accomplish that through His death.  Jesus values humanity’s relationship with the Father more than He values His own life.  Why should we be surprised to hear Jesus extend that same sentiment over His disciples?

Jesus knows the truth.  The world will only know the Father through sacrifice.  When His followers bring God’s truth to the world, they will be persecuted.  They will be mocked.  They will be misunderstood.  It comes with the territory.

However, Jesus also knows that His disciples will make disciples.  The faith will be spread in spite of the persecution.  The faith will be spread through the sacrifice.  Jesus does not want His disciples to be taken out of the world because He knows how faith is transmitted.  He has His priorities right.  In the face of turmoil, Jesus has His eyes on the Father.

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Year 8, Day 264: John 16

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There is a great image in the Bible that most of us would rather not contemplate: the valley of the shadow of death.  It is a dark and scary place.  It is a place where we are convinced that life has come to its lowest point.  It is a place where we can see not hope.  We feel alone, abandoned, and helpless.  None of us like going there, much less thinking about it.

That being said, it is a prominent image in the teachings of the Bible.  Naturally, it is strongly spoken about in the 23^rd Psalm.  “Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil…”  There are other places where the Valley of the Shadow of Death rears its head.  There is the barrenness of Sarai.  There is the Hebrew oppression in Egypt.  There is the 40 years in the wilderness.  There is the religious heresy of the Temple under the evil kings in Israel and often under the kings of Judah. There is the imprisonment of Jeremiah.  There is the Babylonian captivity.  There are many places of darkness in the Bible, even more than I have listed here.

In John 16, Jesus tells His disciples that another period of darkness is coming.  He hints at the coming crucifixion.  There is a time when they will be scattered.  There is a time when Jesus will be taken away and we will not be able to see Him face to face.  From this perspective, there are dark days ahead for His disciples.

However, Psalm 23 does not stop with the valley.  It continues that we will not fear because the Lord is with us and His rod and staff comfort us.  Jesus mirrors these exact words.  He tells the disciples that the dark times ahead are actually a good thing because If Jesus does not go away then the Spirit cannot come!  Remember the post a few days ago?  In the moment, Jesus is presently and physically with the disciples.  The disciples cannot know what it is like to have God dwell within them, though.  It is good to be in the presence of Jesus, but is it not better to dwell with His Spirit?

What is the natural conclusion to passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death?  God will anoint us.  God will fill us with goodness and mercy.  We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Doesn’t that sound like the coming of the Holy Spirit and eternal life?

Nobody like the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  I’m certain Jesus didn’t like being crucified and abandoned.  But, I know that it is worth it.  The anointing of the Spirit is phenomenal.  God’s grace and mercy are unlike anything else.  The promise of dwelling in the house of the Lord is immeasurable.

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Year 8, Day 263: John 15

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John 15 continues much of the same discourse that we’ve heard in the last two chapters.  He is just using different analogies.  In this chapter, He compares Himself to a vine.  If He’s the vine, we are the branches.  We abide in Him; He works in us.

If we are the branches, then we have one purpose.  Our purpose is to bear fruit.  In fact, we could say that the fruit is evidence of the fact that we do abide in Him.  Jesus tells us that without Him, we can do nothing.  Without God, we can bear no fruit.  Therefore, if we see fruit from God, it shows us that He is abiding in us.

Don’t overlook the thrust of the chapter, though.  While Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, this happens for the glory of God.  We display His fruit.  It is nice to realize that the fruit is proof of His presence in us, but the focus should be on glorifying God because of His proof than glorifying the fact that God chose to work through us.  He gets the glory, not us.

If we are walking with God, then we should be putting love on display.  After all, God is love.  His fruit, bore through us, should look like love.  This is also why Jesus tells us that we can ask anything.  If our focus is on the glory of God, then we should be asking for things that will glorify Him through His ability to display love through us.  If we are doing that, then He will give us that for which He asks.

Jesus does not end this chapter on a positive note, however.  While we focus on God’s work through us and the displays of His love, Jesus talks about hate.  The world will hate us.  It will hate us because it hates God.  The world persecuted Jesus because it did not want to submit to Him.  In a sense, the world is not content with being the branches.  Because it doesn’t want to be the branches to God’s vine, it hates Him.  Therefore, the world persecutes God.  If the world persecutes God, then it will persecute the God it sees in us.  It isn’t that the world hates us because of who we are.  The world hates us because of the God it sees in us.  The world hates us most when it sees the fruit that God bears in us.

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Year 8, Day 262: John 14

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Jesus tells His disciples that He is the Truth, the Way, and the Life.  The context of this passage is that nobody comes to the Father except through Him.  He is the Way.  The truth is that He is the Way to God.  The life is the life that God gives to us when we come to Him through Jesus.

The greater context of this teaching is that Jesus is preparing His disciples for the crucifixion.  He tells them that they will see Him only a little while longer.  In a few days’ time, the disciples will experience the crucifixion.  They’ll experience the resurrection.  Then they’ll experience the ascension.  That’s the point.  Yes, Jesus will die.  Yes, the turmoil will be great, but only for three days.  Then the disciples will see Jesus ascend and He’ll be gone from the Earth for quite some time.

Jesus doesn’t want His disciples to feel abandoned.  He doesn’t want them to feel alone.  He doesn’t want them to be confused – although honestly that is hardly avoidable given that the resurrection and ascension aren’t exactly common or easily understood experiences in the moment.  The point is that Jesus loves His disciples and He is trying to teach them and allow them to make sense of the world around them.

All of this is said so that the disciples will understand that God plans to send the Holy Spirit to us.  Jesus won’t leave us alone, He will send His Spirit.  There’s a bit of a catch, though.  Having the Holy Spirit isn’t quite like walking with Jesus.  We cannot reach out and touch the Spirit.  We can’t look into the eyes of the Spirit.  We can’t hear the Spirit speak words over creation and work a miracle.  While Jesus promises the Holy Spirit and assures us that we won’t be abandoned, it is certainly and noticeably different than walking with Jesus on a daily basis as His disciples have done.

However, Jesus informs us that while the experience with the Spirit will be different than with Jesus it will actually be better.  Instead of looking into the eyes of Jesus, the Spirit will dwell within us.  Instead of wondering what Jesus is teaching, the Spirit will guide us from within.  When Jesus was on the Earth, God was with us.  After the ascension, God will dwell in us. That’s powerful.  The religious leaders proved that Jesus could be taken away when they crucified Him.  Nobody can take the Holy Spirit away from dwelling within us.

Our hearts should not be troubled.  Faith is hard, and discerning the Holy Spirit takes effort.  But God is with us!  He dwells with us!  He is in us.  We should have God’s peace indeed!

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Year 8, Day 261: John 13

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John 13 is a great chapter for servant leadership.  In this chapter, we see Jesus get up and wash His disciple’s feet.  Yes, he is washing their feet as a symbol of putting Himself below them in terms of status.  He is also washing their feet as a symbol of the cleansing that Jesus will do for us all.

What’s interesting to note is how this chapter ends.  Jesus says that God has been glorified in Him.  Note the return of the theme from yesterday.  God has been glorified in Christ.  In other words, Jesus has placed Himself in a subservient position to God.  In doing so, He worked for the accomplishment of God’s will.  In this, God has been glorified.

However, Jesus then turns to the disciples and continues too teach the disciples.  He tells them to love one another.  He tells them to love one another because that is how the world will know that they are Jesus’ disciples.  When they demonstrate God’s love, the world will recognize them as the followers of Christ.

Furthermore, in the world recognizing Jesus’ disciples, the Father will continue to be glorified.  That is the ultimate goal of our love.  Yes, we love one another because it is the right thing to do.  We love one another because God first loved us.  We love one another because we are the disciples of Jesus.  Ultimately, though, we love one another because in doing so the Father is glorified.  We love for the glory of the Father.

That’s the shameful part about the story of Judas.  Whatever His motives for handing Jesus over to the religious leaders, it wasn’t about glorifying the Father.  He may have been chasing the money – although I personally doubt it as he returns the money and hangs himself.  He may have been trying to force Jesus to overthrow the religious leaders.  But he wasn’t pursuing the glory of the Father.

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Year 8, Day 260: John 12

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John 12 is a neat story.  We have the anointing of Jesus.  There is the triumphal entry – albeit a slightly more scaled down version from John.  These are memorable moments in the Gospel story.

That being said, we also have some other lesser known stories.  The Pharisees plan to execute Lazarus along with Jesus.  There are the Greeks who seek out Jesus.  There is the voice of God that speaks while Jesus is amidst the crowd.

There is a theme that passes through each of these stories if we are careful to look for it.  The theme is quite simple.  Jesus has come to do the work of the Father.  Jesus is not seeking to glorify Himself.  He is not seeking to win a popularity contest.  Jesus merely wants to bring about the will of the Father.

This theme is most obvious in the central story: the voice from heaven.  As Jesus is teaching, He confesses that He has come to dwell with humanity for this hour so that the Father will be glorified.  The Father replies to Jesus so that others can hear it.  Look closely at the Father’s words.  God says that He has glorified His name and He will glorify it again.  The crux of this chapter is the glory of God.

In this light, we turn to the anointing of Jesus.  Here is a joyous act that serves to glorify and worship God.  Yet, there is Judas standing by asking if it was the most effective use of resources.  I’m not going to lie, I often wonder if I had been there if I wouldn’t had shared Judas’ thought.  But there is a lesson to be learned in that confession.  When we aren’t careful, we temporal human beings can get in the way of glorifying the Father.  We can let our limited perspective prevent us from seeing the big picture.  Our humanity can sometimes cause us to forget to see that the glory of God is the focus.

Naturally, there is also the plot to kill Lazarus.  Once more we have the same issue as with Judas and the oil.  The Pharisees can’t see the resurrection of Lazarus as a good thing.  They can’t see God being glorified.  All they can see is people turning to Jesus and no longer turning to them.  In their own jealousy, they miss the picture.

In the end, the glory of God is our focus.  It is why we are here.  If Jesus came so that God could be glorified in His death as it brings salvation to us all, we should have the same pursuit.  The glory of God should be our focus, even in those moments when our humanity desires us to focus elsewhere.

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Year 8, Day 259: John 11

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It is the best of tales, it is the worst of tales.  In John 11, Lazarus dies.  Jesus raises Him.  Mary and Martha hear bold teaching of the resurrection.  Yet the religious leaders plan to kill Jesus.  This chapter has such promise, and it serves an incredible role in the plan of God.  It is still a sad chapter, though, when we consider the position of the religious leaders.

Look where this chapter starts.  Jesus hears of Lazarus’ impending illness and makes a bold prediction.  This story will not end in Lazarus’ death.  Naturally, this prediction appears false at first because Lazarus does die.  Jesus knows better, though.

In fact, look what Jesus has to say about the situation to His disciples.  Lazarus’ illness hasn’t come so that Lazarus will die, it has come so that the faith of the disciples could increase.  Yesterday I spoke about challenging teachings, here is another one!  How many times do we hear about a person getting a life-threatening issue and the world of the people around the sick person falls apart.  We see this with Martha and Mary in this story.  Jesus is convinced of something else, though.  Jesus is convinced that His disciples will grow through this story.

Catch the truth that Jesus is trying to teach us.  Hardship causes us to growth.  Difficulty makes us mature.  What is the famous saying?  Pain is just weakness leaving the body.  If we have the right perspective, we can look death in the face and know that we will be better in the end.  That’s a challenging teaching indeed!

In the end, Jesus is right.  Lazarus doesn’t die.  The disciples and those around Lazarus see a resurrection miracle.  Faith grows.  People are inspired.  It has all the trappings of a great story!

Instead, though, what we get is the hatred of the religious leaders.  They make even more plans to kill Jesus.  They reaffirm their desire to have Him die.

In the end, it goes back to what Jesus taught us yesterday.  Jesus’ sheep hear His voice and they grow when He teaches.  The religious leaders do not want to believe, so even in the midst of a great miracle the religious leaders look to Jesus’ death with even more zeal.  The religious leaders aren’t even interested in allowing Jesus’ works to witness to His truth.  They’ve made up their mind.  Nothing Jesus can do – not even dying for their sake – can convince them of their error.

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Year 8, Day 258: John 10

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In John 10, Jesus gives pastoral analogy after pastoral analogy.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  His people are His flock.  They know His voice and He knows them.  The one who enters by the gate is the Good Shepherd, but the one who slips in does so in order to steal and destroy.  We should be familiar with all these images.

In the midst of each of these teachings, the religious leaders are there to question and judge.  I know what it feels like to have every action and every word scrutinized both publicly and behind my back.  It’s not fun.  I can only imagine what Jesus endured as He simply tried to teach and bring hope to people.  The religious leaders bring such a downer upon the ministry that Jesus is trying to do.

What is it that Jesus teaches under the intense scrutiny of the religious leaders?  I love the message.  He says, “Which of my good works cause you to accuse me?”  In other words, Jesus is reminding us to let one’s works speak loudly about one’s character.  Want to know who a person is?  Look at what they do.  Look at the effects of their life.  Look at the things for which they strive.

This leads us to the crux of the issue.  It isn’t that the Jewish leaders have an issue with Jesus’ works at all.  They don’t mind the healings and the feedings.  What they don’t care for is the teaching.  They don’t like the fact that Jesus is calling Himself the Son of God.

Be honest with yourself for a second.  If you met someone wandering through the street who called Himself the Son of God, I’m willing to bet you would be skeptical, if not outright doubtful.  This brings us back to Jesus’ point.  Some of Jesus’ teachings are quite challenging.  How do we know that He can be trusted to be the Son of God?  His works testify to His claim.  He makes challenging statements, but He does incredible things.  Who else but the Son of God can walk on water, feed a multitude, heal the sick, and raise the dead?

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Year 8, Day 257: John 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

John 9 gives us more conflict to analyze.  It appears that Jesus initiates the conflict.  After all, He is the one who heals on the Sabbath.  Couldn’t He have healed the man a day earlier or a day later if He wanted?  Did He have to aggravate an already acerbic situation?

On the other hand, is Jesus really to blame?  Is Jesus trying to irritate the Jewish leaders or is He simply trying to let God’s love for the world be seen?

This is a great debate to have and a wonderful place to do a little self-analysis.  How do I react when God’s love is shown?  Do I celebrate?  Do I embrace it?  Or am I critical?  Do I judge that it isn’t done in a way that I think is appropriate?  Is it right to judge?  Is it dangerous to never judge?  These are powerful questions.

In the end, Jesus is consistent with His message in other Gospels.  We will know those who are from God by their works.  When God’s love is shown, it should be obvious.  When we see God’s love at work in the world we should be prepared to recognize it. 

The issue is that we aren’t skilled to see God’s love at first.  This like jealousy and anger get in the way.  Being judgmental and fearing error stop us from experiencing the grand power of His love.  Wanting to be in control means that we miss out on where He is working.  This is why Jesus tells the religious leaders at the end of the passage that He came so those who do not see may see.  God knows that we don’t get it naturally and we need help.

In the end, Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath gives us an awesome opportunity to look at our own humbleness.  Am I willing to acknowledge my growth areas and embrace God’s attempts to get me to grow?  Will I be interested in seeing God’s love wherever it shows up or will I always expect it to happen in a manner that I deem right?  Am I like the man who was blind and asks to meet the Son of Man so that I can believe or am I like the Pharisees who are so convinced I know what the Son of Man looks like that I never ask to see Him?

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Year 8, Day 256: John 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

John 8 opens with a great story.  Here a woman comes before Jesus, accused.  Jesus teaches the religious leaders a great saying.  The one who has no sin in his life is welcome to cast the first judgment.  The religious leaders go away, because they get the point.

While that is a great message, that is only a small portion of the story.  Keep in mind the broad context.  The religious leaders are looking for a way to kill Jesus.

That leads to a really interesting question.  The religious leaders leave because they get the point.  But what is the point that they get?  Do they really understand what Jesus is teaching?  Do they leave because they are convicted of the sin in their heart?  To be honest, with all the arguments that have come before and after this story, I would honestly find it hard to believe that they leave because of their guilt over Jesus’ conviction of the sin in their heart.

Could it be that they leave because they aren’t going to get what they want out of this scenario?  Remember, they bring the woman before Jesus to force him into a position.  Does he side with them and risk alienating the crowd?  Does he side with the woman and give the religious leaders an opportunity to show how Jesus doesn’t take sins like adultery seriously?  They want to force Jesus into a position, knowing that as soon as Jesus takes a side they have an angle against Him.  They leave, then, because by taking no overt side in the debate He gives them no angle against them.

Jesus’ teaching is masterful, and it teaches us much about sin and judgment.  But the greater context of this story is about Jesus, not the woman.  This is why we continue to read in the story that the religious leaders come again and again to argue with Jesus.  They are after His death.

What’s really interesting is what Jesus focuses on inside the trap of the religious leaders.  Jesus teaches us that the truth will set us free.  The truth of the presence of sin set the woman free in the beginning of this chapter.  The truth of each of our sins sets us free as we turn to God, confess them, and allow Him to work on freeing us from that bondage.  When we live in sin, we are in bondage.  When we turn to God and confess our sin, the Son can set us free.

I love that even when Jesus is threatened, He continues to teach about freedom.  Instead of defending Himself, Jesus focuses upon what God has sent Him to do.  It nearly gets Him stoned, but I am willing to bet that He knew that possibility existed.  He knew that the message of truth was worth the trouble it would bring to Him.

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Year 8, Day 255: John 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

John 7 picks up where the last chapter left off.  The people are still figuring out who Jesus is.  Is He a fraud?  Is He really the Son of God?  Is He a curiosity that is worth being paid attention to for a little while and then forgotten once the newness wears off?  It seems like we can find people of each of these categories in this chapter.

Jesus gives us the great test for this debate.  In John 7:18, Jesus tells us that the person who is not from God is going to eventually focus on his own glory.  The person who is from God, however, will focus on giving the glory to God.  After all, if a person is truly from God, why wouldn’t he want the glory of the one who sent him?  If a person is truly from God, why wouldn’t he want the one who can bring Him into eternal life to receive the glory?  The person who is from God points us to God.

Naturally, there is more debate to follow.  Some people think Jesus has a demon.  Other people seem to think that He should be believed because nobody else could do the kind of deeds that Jesus has already done.  Other people want to see Him arrested and brought before the authorities.  It seems like there always was, and always will be, debate about the identity of Jesus.

I love the opinion of Nicodemus at the end of this chapter.  Nicodemus is one of the few people who have the courage to stand up to the religious leader’s opinion.  The religious leaders are seeking to kill Jesus.  After the debate among the people, they feel even more confident in their ability to expose and get rid of Jesus.  In this context, Nicodemus has the courage to stand up and speak.  Nicodemus wants the truth.  He speaks about Jesus’ right to a fair trial.  At this point in the story, Nicodemus may not yet be decided about who Jesus is.  He does want to find out the truth, however.

What is neat in this story is the religious leader’s reaction to Nicodemus.  They immediately discount his voice.  They discount his voice because he disagrees with them, he challenges them, and he isn’t pursuing their goals anymore.  They tell Nicodemus that they already know the truth.  They think that a prophet can’t come from and do what Jesus has done.  Nicodemus is discounted because of the closed minds of the religious leaders.

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Year 8, Day 254: John 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

It’s true what they say.  No good deed ever goes unpunished.  You can have the best motivations.  You can even have a plan that succeeds.  Even with the best plan that succeeds, someone will get upset and they will misunderstand or manipulate things until the good deed suddenly looks worse.

For example, take the feeding of the 5,000.  What an incredible miracle!  How many thousands of people eat their fill on a miraculous dinner made from five loaves of bread and two fish!  It should have been a miracle remembered for the ages.  It should have been an inspiration for people to turn to God and worship Him.  Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

Look at the recipients.  Jesus leaves, and they continue to look for them.  We don’t know how, but Jesus Himself tells us why.  They come because they ate their fill.  They come because they got hungry again.  They come because Jesus was a cheap meal ticket.  What should have led to awe and worship leads to greed and self-centeredness.  Jesus’ good deed is misunderstood, misconstrued, and misrepresented.  They make Jesus out to be a means to a physical end rather than a spiritual model for godly living.

Furthermore, take the religious leaders.  They could have celebrated at the miracle of God.  They could have used it as a springboard to talk about the greatness of God’s provision.  It could have been an incredible moment of spiritual community.  Instead, it is the means to religious argument.  The Jewish leaders get upset at Jesus’ teaching.  They don’t want Jesus to be from God.  They don’t want Him to be from heaven.  They deny the greatness of the miracle because it doesn’t fit into their box.  What should have been a great moment mutates into the worst kind of alternate: angry spiritual debate.

This angry spiritual debate has more communal consequences.  Many of Jesus’ own followers grumble against Jesus about His teaching.  Instead of being a moment when people turn to God and His incredible provision, the argument turns the miracle into a time and place where Jesus actually loses followers! Many people turn aside from Jesus and no longer follow.

Good deeds, indeed.  It should be a great moment.  It turned out quite the opposite.  Don’t get me wrong, Jesus still uses the moment to teach and train His disciples.  God still is in control and He still uses the moment.  Yet the people don’t see God at work.  They turn away.  The seeds of confusion and anger are sown in the presence of the greatness of God’s provision.  It is all too often the way of humanity.

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Year 8, Day 253: John 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

John 5 is once more about focus.  Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath.  Instead of being awed by the miracle – how many modern day Christians would give anything to genuinely see a healing miracle like this – the Jews get upset.  They get upset because Jesus healed on the Sabbath.  Could it be that they are jealous?  Sure.  Could it be that they were religious snobs stuck inside a box of their own thinking?  Sure.  Could it be that they were afraid?  Sure.  We don’t know why the Jews persecuted Jesus because of His compassion.  The reality is that they did and their focus was off.

Then, Jesus goes about showing the Jewish leaders what their focus should be like.  There is something He says to them that really caught my attention today and I don’t remember it catching my attention in the past.  Jesus says to them, “You search the scriptures because you think that you have eternal life in them.”  Whoa.  Those are some serious words that caused me to do a double-take.  I need to flesh that out a bit.

First of all, remember how the Jews of Jesus’ day decided upon salvation.  They were saved because they were the biological offspring of Abraham.  They were the people to whom the Torah was given.  Their mindset was that salvation belonged to them because they were who they were.  Their focus was on biology and genealogy, not their heart.  That’s Jesus’ point here.

What we must be careful to not get from this passage is that it is wrong to study scripture.  Of course, it is good to study scripture!  Jesus encourages the study of scripture.  Even in this chapter Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that the study of scripture should have pointed them to Jesus!  Jesus is all about studying the Word of God.

That being said, though, we should still be careful.  Our knowledge of scripture will not save us.  Our ability to recite scripture from memory will not save us.  Our ability to speak meaningfully about scripture will not save us.  In fact, Jesus is correct with what He tells the Jews.  Eternal life does not come from the study of scripture.

Scripture points us to Jesus.  Scripture helps us to understand God’s work in Jesus.  Scripture does not save us, it points us to the one being from whom our salvation comes: Jesus.  We can learn the lesson well from the Jewish leaders.  When we are looking for salvation, we should always turn our eyes upon Jesus.  Our salvation comes through Him by the grace of God the Father.

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